Summary : Naval gunboat yard, including transverse slipway and gunboat sheds. This unique building and repair yard for gunboats and other small vessels was designed and built in the mid 19th century by William Scamp (allegedly to a design by I.K.Brunel), a senior civil engineer with the navy. A model of the yard may have been shown at the Great Exhibition in 1851. The complex consisted of a slipway with launching cradle leading to a traverser (the 'elephant', 42m long with a load capacity of 160tons) connecting to 19 covered building/repair buildings. The transverse slipway was modernized and a new slipway laid in the early 1950's. The sheds are at right angles to the slipway with roofs carried on cast iron columns and wrought and cast iron trusses. The rear of the sheds is closed off by a brick wall. Numbering from the north end, sheds 1-10 appear to be original, 11-14 have been modernized but retain some original ironwork, 15-16 are completely modernized, 17-19 have been heightened but (like 11-14) retain some original features. The corrugated iron roof may be part of the original design. The yard closed soon after 1978 when Haslar bridge restricted vessels coming up to the yard. Some parts of the site have since been demolished and some of the sheds have been reused for other purposes but some of the site is still untouched. |